Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the House, I thank Mr. Gay Mitchell, MEP, for addressing us. We had an excellent exchange of views this afternoon. Mr. Mitchell was the first of the MEPs to address this Seanad and we hope to have more addresses over the coming months during the EU Presidency. We also hope to have a number of EU Commissioners addressing the House.

We certainly welcomed Mr. Mitchell's comments on this House. We have no intention of duplicating the work of committees in the Houses but we intend to have an active exchange of views on European affairs. In that regard, we are not being afforded the staffing resources required to carry out our duties but the Members will carry out those duties nevertheless. We are intent on having greater scrutiny of EU programmes and directives. We would welcome any help that Mr. Mitchell can give us in that regard. I thank him for attending. It was an honour to have him here this afternoon. We hope it will not be his last visit to the House.